Thé Tjong-Khing (; born August 4, 1933) is a children's book

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

based in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. He was born in Purworedjo,

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

to a large

Chinese Indonesian Chinese Indonesians (), or simply ''Orang Tionghoa'' or ''Tionghoa'', are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Chinese Indonesians are the fourth largest community of Overseas Chinese in th ...

family. As a child he was interested in the

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, a feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer. Creat ...

comic strips of

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American writer, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best known for creating the characters Tarzan (who appeared in ...

. Tjong-Khing attended the ''Seni Rupa'' (arts) institute in

Bandung Bandung is the capital city of the West Java province of Indonesia. Located on the island of Java, the city is the List of Indonesian cities by population, fourth-most populous city and fourth largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta, Surabay ...

. He came to the Netherlands in 1956 and started as a

draftsman A drafter (also draughtsman / draughtswoman in British and Commonwealth English, draftsman / draftswoman, drafting technician, or CAD technician in American and Canadian English) is an engineering technician who makes detailed technical drawi ...

at the Toonder Studio's, initially as a volunteer and later as an employee. In addition to his work on Oliver B. Bumble comics, he contributed to the magazine ''Tina'' and created ''Arman & Ilva''. In 1970 he was asked to provide illustration for Miep Diekmann's children's book. He became a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

illustrator providing illustration to many children's book authors such as van

Guus Kuijer Guus Kuijer (; born 1 August 1942) is a Dutch author. He wrote books for children and adults, and is best known for the ''Madelief'' series of children's books. For his career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest ...

, Els Pelgrom, Sylvia Vanden Heede en

Dolf Verroen Dolf Verroen (born 20 November 1928) is a Dutch writer of children's literature. He won the Gouden Griffel, Zilveren Griffel award five times. Career Early in his career, he worked for the newspaper ''Het Vrije Volk''. Verroen made his debut ...

. Tjong-Khing won the '' Gouden Penseel'' (Golden Brush) award three times, and in 2005 won the ''

Woutertje Pieterse Prijs The Woutertje Pieterse Prijs (; Dutch language, Dutch for Woutertje Pieterse Prize) is an annual Dutch literary award for the best Children's literature, children's book of the preceding year. History The award was first given in 1988. The ...

'' for his book ''Waar is de taart?'' (Where is the cake?), a picturebook without text. For this he also won the ''Zilveren Penseel'' and was nominated for the Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis in 2007. In 2010 he won the '' Max Velthuijs-prijs'' (Max Velthuijs Prize).

Notes

References

External links

Official website
(in Dutch) 1933 births Living people Dutch comic strip cartoonists Dutch comics artists Dutch children's book illustrators Dutch magazine illustrators 20th-century Dutch illustrators 21st-century Dutch illustrators Dutch science fiction artists Dutch people of Chinese descent Dutch people of Indonesian descent Indonesian people of Chinese descent People from Purworejo Regency Woutertje Pieterse Prize winners Max Velthuijs Prize winners Gouden Penseel winners Indonesian comics artists 20th-century Indonesian illustrators 21st-century Indonesian illustrators {{illustrator-stub